Throat carbon removal ????

[LarryDScott]

I have to ask...How can you tell if you have a 'carbon ring'? Is it visible to the naked eye?

I can be seen w/a bore scope easily. LDS

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Opinions on cleaning,
use a bronze brush every time
solvents do not remove hard carbon
use jb/iosso as needed, 50-200 rounds in my experience
I love the pellets for use with jb/iosso
do not let hard carbon build up
its hard to damage a barrel if you use common sense
I have never experienced a carbon ring in my life, using the above

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I can be seen w/a bore scope easily. LDS

You are seeing this carbon ring with your eye? I would get a bore scope in there. The end of the chamber just before the freebore can get looking pretty eroded looking. I think it would be pretty hard to tell exactly what your seeing with the naked eye.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

 

[memilanuk]

You are seeing this carbon ring with your eye? I would get a bore scope in there. The end of the chamber just before the freebore can get looking pretty eroded looking. I think it would be pretty hard to tell exactly what your seeing with the naked eye.

Read carefully... he said "with a borescope". Actually he abbreviated it as "w/ a borescope" but that's fairly standard, still.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I missed that

 

[KenOath]

View attachment 1021977

What is this ^^^?

 

[Alex Wheeler]

What is this ^^^?

Carbon ring removal tool of course. I made it by request, but the report was it would be too easy to damage your chamber if you were not careful. So it was not a great idea.

 

[moondog]

Hard Carbon, like the carbon on the back side of an exhaust valve form a Turbo charged
engine is next to impossible to remove. I have tried EVERY chemical I could get my hands
on soaking over nite with little to no results. 2 years of testing. Same with cut off ends of barrels. the only
product that works for me is CLR. I think it is a bit hard on metal though.
Thunderbeast uses it to clean the Cans. Maybe Alex can pipe in on this product for barrels.
I Haven't tried it on a cut off barrel yet. Maybe this week.

 

[T-shooter]

Hard Carbon, like the carbon on the back side of an exhaust valve form a Turbo charged
engine is next to impossible to remove. I have tried EVERY chemical I could get my hands
on soaking over nite with little to no results. 2 years of testing. Same with cut off ends of barrels. the only
product that works for me is CLR. I think it is a bit hard on metal though.
Thunderbeast uses it to clean the Cans. Maybe Alex can pipe in on this product for barrels.
I Haven't tried it on a cut off barrel yet. Maybe this week.

Have you ever tried oven cleaner? I remember years ago, I tried it on Holley carbs. It cleaned very well but if soaked overnight, would attack the metal (whatever alloy it is). The little raised lettering on the fuel bowls would round off and almost disappear. Steel in a barrel is different and it may not damage it. It would have to be used very carefully. Would be a good test if someone had an old barrel.

 

[Dgd6mm]

I use GM TEC, yes I still have some, first. Then I use Iosso on a patch with a little Kroil. I do this every 200-300 rounds, depending on what the barrels need.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I have not found a chemical that will touch hard carbon. Including the old GM TEC in metal cans. Iosso is easy and works, my search for new methods has been over for years.

 

[agr516]

I have used the felt pellets and jb's bore paste with good success. I currently have a 220 swift with a small amount of carbon that is being stubborn despite the pellets. Soak them in Kroil before applying the paste. I have not had a problem fitting the appropriate sized pellets in the bore.

I started using them because my favorite rifle, a 243ai, develops carbon rings fast. I have not tried testing different powders to see if that helps slow the formation because the Retumbo load i shoot works so well. I notice that my loaded rounds begin to feel "sticky" when extracting and the carbon even leaves scuffs on the bullet. When i see/feel that, out come the pellets and paste.

 

[boltman13]

I pretty much agree with Alex, except I prefer Flitz to JB/Iosso. It takes a lot of passes with a tight brush/patch to remove carbon and you will sweat, my child, before it is done. The hard baked on carbon looking almost like black glass is what Flitz works on. Once you have it happen to you once you will pay a lot more attention to carbon removal, get it while it is soft with C4 and save yourself a lot of sweat.

 

[Dgd6mm]

I've been using Iosso for many,many years.. I also have used JB and Flitz. Nothing but Iosso now, use the TEC ,well simply cause I have it and it gives me a fuzzy feeling. Will not miss it when it's gone, neither will my wife, she hates the smell in the house.

 

[BenPerfected]

Having tried most of the above, for me twisting a bronze brush slightly larger than the chamber neck cleans up 95% of the carbon ring. Keep the carbon ring at bay, shows on paper at 500 yd +.
Ben

 

[memilanuk]

Anybody tried Holland's Witches Brew for carbon? I've got some Iosso on the way, along with some Sinclair chamber plugs. Figure I'll work on an old barrel, finding *something* that'll touch those black charcoal strips up the center of the grooves for the first 3-4"... tried soaking it in BoreTech C4 Carbon cleaner (i.e. leave a wet patch in there in contact with the bore)... all that did was turn the patch blue/turquoise - and yes, I did double check that I grabbed the Carbon cleaner, not the Copper remover or the bottle of Eliminator.

 

[JBT47]

Anybody tried Holland's Witches Brew for carbon? I've got some Iosso on the way, along with some Sinclair chamber plugs. Figure I'll work on an old barrel, finding *something* that'll touch those black charcoal strips up the center of the grooves for the first 3-4"... tried soaking it in BoreTech C4 Carbon cleaner (i.e. leave a wet patch in there in contact with the bore)... all that did was turn the patch blue/turquoise - and yes, I did double check that I grabbed the Carbon cleaner, not the Copper remover or the bottle of Eliminator.

I've also found that C4 will show blue on a patch.

As far as Witch's Brew, it is 1200 micron Aluminum Oxide in Kroil. I believe Alum Ox is a harder substrate than the abrasive found in JB (I'm not sure about what the abrasive material in Iosso is). I've used Witch's Brew but I am kind of leery of it because of the alum ox.

 

[memilanuk]

Cool. How did you apply/use it? When I used it in the past (before I had a bore scope) I was told to just shake it up and squirt it on a regular bronze bore brush, and do so ever few hundred rounds. I had been doing just that, and about the time my bottle ran out was when I got my Lyman borescope. Turned out it didn't look like it had done squat - but then I wondered if I had been applying it correctly, as I didn't really see how the brush bristles would do a very effective job of pushing the abrasive against the bore surface...?

 

[JBT47]

Cool. How did you apply/use it? When I used it in the past (before I had a bore scope) I was told to just shake it up and squirt it on a regular bronze bore brush, and do so ever few hundred rounds. I had been doing just that, and about the time my bottle ran out was when I got my Lyman borescope. Turned out it didn't look like it had done squat - but then I wondered if I had been applying it correctly, as I didn't really see how the brush bristles would do a very effective job of pushing the abrasive against the bore surface...?

When I used it in the past I did so in the same manner...applied to a bronze brush. It seemed to work. Nowadays I use Iosso paste and Iosso Oil on an Iosso nylon brush and scrub back and forth in the throat section and forward about 8". This works as confirmed with borescope. Sometimes I will use KG2 in the same manner rather than Iosso.